REFRACTIVE SURGERY

REFRACTIVE SURGERY -- THE LASER AND MICROSURGICAL CORRECTION OF NEARSIGHTEDNESS, FARSIGHTEDNESS, AND ASTIGMATISM.

Nearsightedness, farsightedness and astigmatism are all related to flaws in the curvature of the cornea (the clear domed cap of the eye). All the laser refractive surgical procedures, LASIK, SBK-LASIK, PRK, advanced surface ablation, LASEK, and epi-LASIK, all work by the same strategy — they all reshape the cornea to allow sharp focusing and clear sight.

• In the case of nearsightedness, the cornea is too steeply curved. Without glasses or contacts, nearsighted people see well up close, but not at a distance.
  
  
• In the case of farsightedness, the cornea is too flat. Without glasses or contacts, farsighted people see poorly at all ranges, but they see somewhat more clearly at a distance.
  
  
• In the case of astigmatism, the cornea has different curvatures, similar to the shape of a football or the back of a teaspoon, resulting in blurred or double vision.
  

Before After

Prior to refractive surgery, the classical treatment for corneal shape flaws was glasses or contacts, which "cover-up" the shape problems. Laser vision correction, by contrast, goes right to the heart of the matter and reshapes the cornea. Traditionally, the goal of all formats of refractive surgery has been the same as the goal of glasses or contact lenses: to correct nearsightedness, farsightedness, and astigmatism. Success has been considered the ability to give patients vision equal to their glasses or contacts. The latest generation of conventional laser vision correction procedures use sophisticated excimer lasers guided by computerized eye tracking and delivery systems to allow the vast majority of patients to see similarly to the best pair of glasses of contacts. Recently, however, there has been a paradigm shift and this has all changed.

A new, and even more sophisticated form of laser vision correction surgery was approved by the FDA in 2003: Customized Wavefront LASIK. With Customized Wavefront LASIK, the goal of surgery is no longer to equal the level of correction of glasses or contact lenses, but to attempt actually to exceed it. Using advanced technology, Customized Wavefront LASIK works to not only correct a patient's simple nearsightedness, farsightedness, or astigmatism, but to additionally correct complicated shape distortions which are as unique to an individual's eye as one's fingerprint. The most modern forms of customized wavefront laser vision correction represent the ultimate evolution of refractive eye surgery.